10 Ways to Joy

First I need to define happiness before suggesting ways to get it. For myself, joy is a peaceful feeling that you have regardless of the circumstances. When a person feels peaceful, it means he or she feel secure and content most of the time.

10 ways to joy:

15 minutes mediation in the morning – I will pray for about 5 to 15 minutes every morning to set goals for my day. God always gives me perspective and encouragement for my day. If you are not a Christian, just try to have a peaceful time and enjoy the here and now moment in those 15 mintues.

Live for the moment – Focus on here and now. Don’t let your mind wander to the past or your future.

Stay fit – Our body has a tremendous effect on our peace of mind. If you don’t exercise, you will feel dull, drowsy or irritated all the time! Try to do cardio exercise for 30 minutues a day. It will help your body accumulate the happy hormone in your body.

Eat clean and healthy food – When you eat well (more vegetables than meat), you will have less burden in your liver and kidneys. Then you can conserve more energy for your mind.

Smile! – Behaviors can change your mind. When you smile, your body will relax and destress automatically. Force yourself to smile sometimes when you feel dull or blue. It will lighten up your mood!

Act confident and do it afraid – Joyce Meyer said we can act confident even if we don’t feel confident. “Do it afraid” means overcoming your fear and do what is right. If we overcome our fear and worries, our life will be more exciting and free.

Love and forgive yourself – Don’t judge yourself. You can’t enjoy life when you don’t like youself. You can’t forgive the others when you cannot forgive yourself. If you can’t forgive, you can’t love happily. Forgive youself when you make mistakes. Acknowledge the mistakes, repent and understand that you are getting wiser after that.

Love your neighbour like yourself – Famous motto from Jesus and it is totally true. Once you love youself, share your love and happinness with the people around you. We should always believe in the best of the others and give them the benefit of doubt.

Detox your mind – Screen out all of the negative forces in your mind, including jealousy, hatred, pride, judgementalism, criticism, greed and other wordly cravings. We need to get rid of all kinds of mind addictions so that we can libearte ourselves

You can do it! – Make a decision and believe that you can achieve joy. Don’t let your mind defeat you. Happiness is a decision and a choice.

2) Thinking of the past can make me sad; thinking of the future frequently can bring me fear and anxiety. If we always live in the present, we don’t need a fortune teller. Because when we focus at the here and the now, we are conscious….Therefore, any decision, any thought, any speech, any act we do will be wholesome (good).

3) I have to work on that fitness : )

4) Since I change to vegetable-base food, everything that passes my body in the morning is no longer smell !!! hahaha

5) Now I smile more often. For example, when I have unwholesome thoughts, I smile and say opps! I did it again. When I lost my mindfulness, I smile and “opps, come back come back”. Yes, also adding half smile when you meditate is recommend. I have this trick from 7-day retreat.
We can be happy and not addict to it because we realize that all things including feelings come and go.

6) Meditation is a practice for our mind training. So not only it brings peace, it also eliminates fear, anxiety, etc ect.

7), 8) and 9) Mediation also helps you on compassion to all being. If we recognize and understand our own suffers, we can recognize and understand others’ and know how to help them because we learn from helping ourselves before. Mindfulness helps us look deeply (without wrong perceptions) into everything (mind & body).

10) I wore Nike sweater to the 7-day retreat because I wanted to remind myself “Just Do It”. For me, “Just Do It” led me to “I can do it”. Peace when letting go of worries is awesome experience. I am not endorsing Nike, am I? : )

Thank Thich Nhat Hanh for his teaching. Now, I know the secret of living my life happily is only living in the here and the now. Once again thank to your sharing. ; )

Thanks to P’Chompoo for your sharing!!! I love it. 🙂 I totally agree with you. Mindfulness is the key to happiness. Nothing is more important than understanding ourselves. I learned a lot from your insight! Btw, I found many books by Thich Naht Hanh in the Kino bookstore on the 3rd floor of Siam Paragon. And there are also a few of them in the Asia Book on the 2nd floor of Siam Paragon. You can check them out!

Yes! We really have to practice smiling from inside. I think if we do that, the people around us will be influenced by our aura too. Together we are one. 🙂
The books in Kino may be slightly expensive. But if you really want to read his books ASAP, it will be a good place to go. 😀